Posted
by
samzenpuson Sunday June 09, 2013 @12:54PM
from the rest-in-peace dept.

An anonymous reader writes "BBC News is reporting that Iain Banks, best known for his Culture series novels and The Wasp Factory, has died of cancer aged 59. It had been announced several months ago that he was suffering from bladder cancer, and he had stated his intentions to spend his remaining time visiting places which meant a lot to him after marrying his partner."

Totally agree with you regarding moronic UI designer arrogance. It is the same attitude that gives us 'mobile' versions of websites (often without any way back to the normal version than changing the User Agent string in your device's browser) which disable zooming. The only justification I've heard is that it 'preserves the integrity of the design' which matters not one fucking iota if the user can't actually see the content that the design is meant to be presenting.

CommonCents noted an Apple announcement a few hours before the anticipated keynote. He says "Apples' latest must have gadget does away with the keyboard. With the new MacBook Wheel, Apple has replaced the traditional keyboard with a giant wheel."

Posted
by
kdawsonon Wednesday November 05, 2008 @01:49AM
from the an-application-has-expectedly-quit dept.

rugatero writes "The BBC reports that, as of last Saturday, Microsoft is no longer issuing licenses for the 18-year-old Windows 3.x. Many here may well be surprised to learn that anyone still has use for the antiquated software, but it seems to have found a home in a number of embedded systems — including cash registers and the in-flight entertainment systems on some long-haul passenger jets (Virgin and Qantas are cited). Considering Linux's credentials as an embedded OS, this news could very well indicate the possibility of more migrations in the pipeline."

"After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo! do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal," said Ballmer."

Posted
by
samzenpuson Thursday April 03, 2008 @12:20AM
from the we-do-whatever-is-cheaper dept.

MissingRainbow writes "To avoid paying taxes in India, Microsoft wanted a court to believe that it is selling its product and that there are no royalty payments involved. Their own EULA worked against them in this particular case however as it states, "the product is licensed, not sold". The court ruled against them."

Whiney Mac Fanboy writes: "The Register is reporting that the windows version Apple's Safari Web browser has an interesting catch in the EULA. You're forbidden to install it on Windows. This is the same browser that Apple slips in as an 'update' to iTunes. The license was last updated six months ago — proof that noone (even the authors) read an EULA."Link to Original Source

Whiney Mac Fanboy writes: "On a recent visit to Australia, Apple founder Steve 'Woz' Wozniak has given an interview in which he comments on the 'dissapointing' iPhone, citing the lack of 3G support and adding that other 3G phones have a good battery life. He carries a Motorolla phone to make up for the iPhone's shortcomings. On the macBook Air: "I don't think it's going to be a hit...I don't feel it's a benefit if you have to carry the Air plus a DVD player plus a couple of extra dongles to connect to Ethernet things and also maybe an extra hard disk to carry your music. On AppleTV: "My life is way too global and unpredictable for that [24-hour time limit to watch shows] — I'll get interrupted by something and I won't finish it; I don't want to have to pay again." He also noted AppleTV's poor video playback quality for youtube content."Link to Original Source

Posted
by
Soulskillon Monday February 18, 2008 @01:18AM
from the copying-copyright-right dept.

msim brings word that Australian legislators are considering an anti-piracy measure that would require ISPs to terminate internet access for people who repeatedly download copyrighted material. The legislation would set up a three-strikes system similar to the one proposed in the UK recently. While British ISPs resisted suggestions that they act as internet police, the response may not be the same in Australia, where the government has already tried to censor the internet.
"Under the three-strikes policy, a warning would be first issued to offenders who illegally share files using peer-to-peer technology to access music, TV shows and movies free of charge. The second strike would lead to the offender's internet access being suspended; the third would cancel the offender's internet access."

CurlyG writes: Apple's much-touted new operating system, OS X Leopard, is in some ways worse that Windows Vista, says the founder of the Linux open source project, Linus Torvalds.
Torvalds was in Melbourne last week for the linux.conf.au conference and was invited to pass judgement on OS X versus Windows Vista in a wide-ranging interview.
"I don't think they're equally flawed — I think Leopard is a much better system," he said. "(But) OS X in some ways is actually worse than Windows to program for. Their file system is complete and utter crap, which is scary."

Posted
by
kdawsonon Monday November 26, 2007 @09:41PM
from the doesn't-take-a-genius dept.

g-san writes "Some Mac users are having problems with the latest 10.4.11 update, yours truly included. The problem seems to be caused by the presence of a Boot Camp partition and renders the Mac unable to reboot after the update fails. Note the Geniuses at the Apple stores are recommending a full disk wipe; but data can be recovered via Firewire." MacNN has a note up that if you fall victim to this "known issue" and need to reformat the disk, you can't reinstall Boot Camp because it is no longer available to OS X 10.4 Tiger users.

rjodwyer writes: "Hew Griffiths, an Australian is has been extradited for trial in America for crimes committed outside of the USA, and to a country to which he has never set foot in. Leader of the infamous Drink or Die cracking group, he has been extradited to the USA, in what only seems to be Australia bowing under pressure from America. As Australian Senator Ellison had the power to refuse extradition, this looks like Australia handed him over to satisfy corporate interests in America. His fellow crackers had their trials conducted in their own countries."

Forbes said the highest-paid CEOs were not always those that delivered the most to shareholders.Forbes said by its analysis, Apple's Jobs was 36th. Topping the list was John Bucksbaum of General Growth Properties, a real-estate investment trust. Over the past six years, Bucksbaum was paid $US723,000 a year while delivering a 39 per cent annual return to shareholders.